Digital Media Center
Bryant-Denny Stadium, Gate 61
920 Paul Bryant Drive
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0370
(800) 654-4262

© 2024 Alabama Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
WHIL is off the air and WUAL is broadcasting on limited power. Engineers are aware and working on a solution.
Alabama Shakespeare Festival Enter for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Fresh Air Weekend: Actor Andie MacDowell; Novelist Gary Shteyngart

Andie MacDowell says her experience with her own mother's mental illness informs her portrayal of Paula in the Netflix series <em>Maid.</em>
Ricardo Hubbs
/
Netflix
Andie MacDowell says her experience with her own mother's mental illness informs her portrayal of Paula in the Netflix series Maid.

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

Andie MacDowell draws from the chaos and darkness of her childhood for 'Maid': MacDowell grew up with a mother who was mentally ill and addicted to alcohol. "Understanding the complexity of mental illness was something that I'm versed in," she says.

Louise Erdrich's disquieting new novel will keep you on your toes: Set in a haunted Minneapolis bookshop over the course of one very momentous year, The Sentence is an ambitious novel, featuring a sinister ghost, a country in tumult and Erdrich's own shifting style.

How Gary Shteyngart's pandemic pod inspired a novel about friendship: Our Country Friends is about the trysts and betrayals that occur within a group of friends during the pandemic. It's an exaggerated version of Shteyngart's own COVID experience.

You can listen to the original interviews and review here:

Andie MacDowell draws from the chaos and darkness of her childhood for 'Maid'

Louise Erdrich's disquieting new novel will keep you on your toes

How Gary Shteyngart's pandemic pod inspired a novel about friendship

Copyright 2021 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.

News from Alabama Public Radio is a public service in association with the University of Alabama. We depend on your help to keep our programming on the air and online. Please consider supporting the news you rely on with a donation today. Every contribution, no matter the size, propels our vital coverage. Thank you.